A ‘celebration of disabled and deaf-led performance’ for Camden People’s Theatre

A bold, disabled-led celebration of performance, protest and connection…

Camden People’s Theatre is to launch Every Body Festival, a two-week celebration of disabled and deaf-led performance, creativity and community. Running from 29 June to 13 July 2025, Artistic Director Rio Matchett’s inaugural programme features a packed line-up of live shows, workshops, digital premieres and panel discussions – all led by disabled and deaf artists pushing at the boundaries of access, artistry and resistance.

Rio Matchett, Artistic Director, Camden People’s Theatre:

“Camden People’s Theatre strives to model the future we want to be part of – where there is equal, intersectional access to the arts for both creatives and audiences. The Summer 2025 programme has been my first opportunity to programme a season since joining CPT in October last year, and despite the many systemic challenges facing the industry, it felt vital to use this festival to make a statement of intent.”

From one-night-only scratch nights to urgent political debate, the festival is designed to create space for everyone – with access at its heart and artists at the centre.

The festival features new work from FUSE, Deafinitely Theatre, and Paines Plough, alongside streamed performances that extend the programme – and its accessibility – beyond the building.

Highlights include For A Palestinian, a ★★★★★ (WhatsonStage) hit performed by Extraordinary’s Bilal Hasna, with a share of the proceeds going to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund, and GRILLS, a ★★★★★ show described by The Reviews Hub as “an archive of queer joy,” developed through CPT’s own commissioning scheme. Both are available to stream on demand throughout the festival, reflecting CPT’s ongoing commitment to digital access and community-led storytelling.

Across two weeks, Every Body Festival brings together one-night-only performances, panel discussions, online meet-ups and live cabaret – all led by artists with lived experience of disability, neurodivergence or deaf identity.

From Lighting the FUSE, a new BSL-led theatre piece devised in just five days, to The Only Brown Deaf Man in England, a fierce, funny, and unapologetically bold work-in-progress – one Deaf Bengali man’s journey through racism, rebellion, and resilience from 1970s Brick Lane to post-9/11 Britain; written by Nadeem Islam and created with Fuse Theatre. The programme invites audiences to celebrate joy, challenge power, and reimagine the future together.

Rio Matchett, Artistic Director, Camden People’s Theatre:

“Alongside platforming voices and stories that continue to be marginalised – or fetishised – by the theatre industry, every event in the festival includes some form of integrated access: from creative captioning and multilingual BSL/English performance to work curated specifically for neurodivergent audiences and artists.

“We’re also really proud that, with support from City Bridge Foundation, we’re paying every live artist a guaranteed fee – not a box office split. That felt like an essential political decision at a time when disabled people are being squeezed harder and harder financially. CPT is carrying the financial risk so artists don’t have to – but we need our community to come on the journey with us and buy those tickets.”

One of the festival’s most urgent events is Balancing the Books, a panel discussion on Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Access to Work, and disability rights. In response to Labour’s proposed PIP and Access to Work reforms – which could see thousands of disabled people lose vital support – the panel was added to the programme to create space for direct, creative resistance. Led by disabled artists and activists, it centres the lived experience of those most affected, offering a necessary counterpoint to policy decisions too often driven by selective data rather than dignity.

Every Body Festival puts access at the heart of its design, not just its delivery. All its events have an element of access, whether that’s BSL, captioning, audio description or a relaxed design.      From online meet-ups like Queerdos – a space for queer, disabled and neurodivergent people to connect and create – to digital streams, panel discussions and scratch nights, the festival reflects Camden People’s Theatre’s long standing commitment to platforming underrepresented voices and reimagining who gets to make theatre, and how.

Other highlights include FUSE’s panel discussion and workshop, two electric Scratch Nights of brand new work from disabled and neurodivergent artists, and Deafinitely Theatre’s New Writing Sharing, platforming emerging deaf women’s voices.

The programme also features Laika, a sci-fi-inflected story of disability and isolation, Characteristics of a Child Ten Days Old, a lyrical new play about medical choice and motherhood, and A Night in Sign, a vibrant BSL-led cabaret celebrating Deaf talent. The festival closes with an inclusive Every Body Party – complete with snacks, a chill-out space, and possibly even Deaf karaoke.

Rio Matchett, Artistic Director, Camden People’s Theatre:

“We’ve been lucky to collaborate with brilliant partners – including FUSE, Deafinitely Theatre and Paines Plough – and I’m so proud to present this as my first season at CPT. The work is genuinely excellent, and the disabled theatre community has been a huge part of my personal support network. This festival is, in many ways, a thank you. And it’s only the beginning.”

Every Body Festival

29 June – 13 July 2025
Camden People’s Theatre, 58–60 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PY
www.cptheatre.co.uk/festivals/EveryBody
Accessible venue | BSL-led and interpreted shows | Relaxed performances | Digital streams available